


It's a weird feeling.

by thatlily



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, I think this is quite good., you should read it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-08-18 04:18:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 11,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8148884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatlily/pseuds/thatlily
Summary: They're soulmates. They're soulmates and they're going to be in love. It's a weird feeling, isn't it? Knowing that you're going to fall in love with someone miles away from you.





	1. Writing on her hands.

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, you just have to imagine that everything that Delphine says and thinks is in French. Also, the first few chapters are short but they get longer.  
> Have fun reading, pals.

**Chapter 1**

Everyone has a connection with their soulmate before they even know what 'soulmate' means. This is the same for all people. Your soulmate can be anyone. Any age, any ethnicity, any religion. Anyone.  
\---

Delphine has had writing on her hands for as long as she knew what they meant. But she doesn't know what they mean. They are similar letters, just like her own, but the way in which they are put together makes no sense to her.

Delphine recognises some of the words, the ones that come and eventually disappear. Long words, what are presumably names, a certain chains of words, 'Sarah is my favourite sister' shows up the most. Delphine doesn't know what it means.  
\---

Delphine never writes back, mostly because there's nothing for her to say to words she doesn't understand. And, if she can't understand her soulmate, why would her soulmate be able to understand her?

Her mother and father don't like her writing on her hands. Apparently, her being in contact with her soulmate is less important than her being tidy.

So she doesn't do it.


	2. English on her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's English

**Chapter 2**

When Delphine is nine, she's minding her own business, colouring in a picture of a boat, when a girl she's not friends with comes up to her and asks, "Why have you got that other language on your arms?"

Delphine hardly even notices it anymore, the words on her arms she doesn't understand. "It's my soulmate." She says, as if it's obvious. Because it is. "Do you know what language it is?"

"English." The girl says.

English.  
\---

Delphine learns English.

Eventually, she learns the words she sees on her hands. She understand what the words mean. Some of them, at least. There are reminders about something called 'chores', picking things up, why her soulmate has to remind themselves to do something they can do right in that moment, Delphine doesn't understand, there are also lots of lists.  
\---

There are still a lot of words that Delphine doesn't understand. All the long ones, the ones that Delphines tongue cannot find it's way around.

Delphine looks up the words that come up a lot. The one's she doesn't quite get. They all lead back to the same one thing.

Science.  
\---

Delphine looks into it. Of course she's learned about it in school, found interest in it there, but something about these topics that her soulmate is into makes things a lot more enticing.

The words scrawled on her skin are all advanced, advanced in a way that makes her understand that her soulmate is a genius, as in, genius-at-age-6 genius.

With the words on her skin, Delphine searches further into science, the science that her soulmate loves, not the science at school, where she learns about photosynthesis.

Through this science, she finds immunology, something she finds incredibly interesting. She spends a lot time searching into immunology, the basics, the complex, everything.

Delphine thanks her soulmate. In her mind, of course. She would on her skin, but she can't find it in herself to do so.


	3. Drawing on her hands.

**Chapter 3**

When Delphine gets sent to boarding school at 13 , she misses her parents, though she calls them, it's strange to be without them.

Her love of science means that she has learned a lot in the syllabus. And by a lot, it's all of it. She knows everything. This also means, that she is bored, all the time. And, because of this, the most interesting thing Delphine can find to do is pick up her pen and doodle on her hands.

Nothing special, it's not like she's an artist, she just cannot deal with listening to the bearded man at the front of the room, droning on about all things she already has in her head.

She hesitates for a little while, because what would her parents think, then she realises, the next time she'll see her parents is Christmas.

It hardly crosses her mind that her soulmate will see these shapes.

Then her teacher says, "So, does this prove our hypothesis?"

The room is completely quiet, Delphine shakes her head slightly at her classmates.

Her teacher see's this; see's Delphine for the first time probably for the whole school year.

"Delphine, correct?" He says, looking at her.

Delphine nods. Everyone's looking at her.

"Care to share your opinions?" He says, clearly expecting her to say no.

"Yes," Delphine says, making eye contact, "It does prove the hypothesis, the proof is clearly written on the board, underneath the hypothesis, it says, the word 'PROOF' in all caps. The words in that chart, say the things that are in our hypothesis. So. Yes."

Her teacher looks like he's a little bit mad. Then he nods. And starts droning on again. Delphine starts drawing again.


	4. Art on her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cosima's point of view

**Chapter 4**

When Cosima wakes up, she pushes the cover off of her body, and the book off of her chest. Rubbing her eyes she walks into her bathroom, rubbing her eyes and notices something different.

Something.

What?

Her hands, they have things on them. Not from her, like usual, not a list, or note, or dumb thing that Sarah wrote on her.

It's a little pattern, down the middle of her index finger, it's just a little triangle, a circle, a little line, then it repeats. All the way down to her wrist.

 

Cosima always thought that her soulmate didn't want any contact, or that they weren't born yet.

Then when she couldn't sleep, she thought that maybe she was the only person to exist that doesn't have a soulmate.   
\---

But now, seeing that she does have something her heart pumps. This the first thing that she's gotten from her soulmate, it's a rush, really. But what in the living _hell_ is this supposed to mean. A bunch of shapes? Is she supposed to know what it means, because she really doesn't? It doesn't really make sense.

The way that her mind works means that she wants to analyse it all. Take it apart, figure it out. but this obviously isn't how this works. How is she supposed to figure it out when she doesn't know the information? 

Even so, Cosima loves it, revels in it. She basically just had contact with her soulmate for the first time ever.

Kind of.

But does she respond? If she does decide to respond what would she say? What do you say about a little drawing, 'oh wow awesome job, by the way we will fall in love.' And besides, her soulmate never answered her, so what use is it telling her soulmate something that she might not even get a reply from? It doesn't quite make sense to Cosima.

So, Cosima leaves it, decides to wait for her soulmate to wash off the patterns on her skin.  
\---

For some reason, Delphine had expected some kind of response. She had never, in her many years of life, written anything on her skin. Never contacted her soulmate in any kind of way, and now that she has, now that she has drawn those little shapes down her finger, she had for some reason expected something.

But then again, it was only shapes. A few lines, joined up and coloured in. It's no masterpiece. It's no Mona Lisa.

Perhaps she shouldn't have assumed.

She doesn't even know her soulmate, she knows what her handwriting looks like and just about only that.

It's a strange thing to think about, really. This person writing on her hands, is the person she's supposed to fall in love with. She's supposed to live life with them.

She doesn't even know their first name.

Delphine almost decides, in that moment of clarity, to get in touch with her soulmate. To maybe get to know them.

But how do you start a conversation with the love of your life.


	5. Grading her hands.

**_Chapter 5_ **

Once again, the dreary teacher at the front of the class is recounting the things in Delphine's clunky text book, that she is already aware of.

Boredom gets the better of her and she begins a new drawing.  
\---

Soon, Cosima picks up on when the drawings show up on her arms. Usually it's in the middle of the night, or early in the morning. She only knows this because when she wakes up in the morning, with a line of something on her arms or hands. It confuses her. For a while, because why in the world is her soulmate staying up so late into the night? When do they sleep?

Never, from the looks of things.  
\---

Walking down to get breakfast, Cosima meets Sarah in the familiar hallway, like usual.

And, like usual, the girl says, "Nice ink, Cos." Sarah grabs the girl's hand to inspect it, "This person's getting good." She drops Cosima's hand and looks at her to say, "You spoke to her yet?"

Cosima and Sarah walk into the kitchen, where Alison sits, and says, "No. What is it that you expect me to say anyway? Oh, hello. Let's fall in love." Cosima scoffs.

Alison soon joins into their conversation, say simply, "Just introduce yourself, Cosima. He might be lovely."

Felix walks in then, "Or 'she'." He adds, pulling himself onto the marble counter top.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

"You ever noticed how they always show up after you sleep?" Sarah says, around a mouthful of toast.

Cosima perks up at this, having it been on her mind for the past few days, "You know, I have. And I was thinking, I stay up a lot longer than most, so like, they must stay up hours longer than me."

Everyone nods in agreement, the situation is a little strange.

Then Cosima slaps her hand to her forehead.

"They live on the other side of the world. Obviously. It's the time difference."

"Ooooh"'s fill the room.  
\---

Cosima takes note of when the drawings show up.

Saturday's.  
Tuesday's.  
Wednesday's.  
Thursday's.

Eventually, it becomes just enough for her, seeing these drawings, appearing on her hands and not doing anything to them.

And Cosima can't really decide what to do about them.

Until, she gets one that really is much better than the rest. It's down the underside of her wrist, almost right down her elbow, it's like, a vine, with flowers, branching off and wrapping around to the top, it's all in black pen again, a sharpie, maybe?

Who knows.

But, either way, it's amazing.

And she _has_ to say something.

But, for the life of her she just can't figure out what, so instead of writing something, declaring her love of little doodles, she grades it. It's really a heat of the moment kind of thing. It just seemed to make the most sense.

She picks up her pen and gives it a grade A. Because really what else would she give it?  
\---

This carries on for a while. Honestly, Cosima isn't even sure if her soulmate realises. She carries on doing it anyway.

She gives most of them A's and A+'s. Sometimes she'll give out an A+++.

That's just because she likes that her soulmate can draw.


	6. Names on her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took longer than usual.

_**Chapter 6** _

Soon, Cosima begins writing her notes halfway up her arm, because the rest is taken up by beautiful drawings. She doesn't mind.

Really.

It's worth it. To see what it is that goes through her soulmates mind through drawings.

She really doesn't want to see them fade away. She seriously considers getting them tattooed on a good few times, but then thinks that maybe her soulmate wouldnt agree.  
\---

Delphine is in the middle of Maths when one of her friends turns to her and asks why there's an A on her arm.

She immediatly looks to it to see what her friend is talking about.

When she see's it, she knows that it was not her who put it there. Which means it must have been her soulmate. Was this directed at her? At her drawing?

It must've been. What else could it be.

"It must've been my soulmate," She says, incredulous.

Her friend, Jennifer, scrunches up her face, "They graded one of those doodles you do? That's weird." Jennifer gets back to her work sheet.

Delphine runs her finger along it, "Yes, I suppose it is," Delphine whispers, mostly to herself.  
\---

Soon, when she does any of her drawings, there's a letter next to it, a grade. It makes Delphine laugh, because eventually, when she does anything, her soulmate answers in a grade A+++, or somehing like that.

It's nice to know that her soulmate, where ever they may be, love her drawings.  
\---

A few weeks later, Delphine still loves the grades. All of them make her smile, lighten her day. They just make her feel better.

But there's something niggling at her head, something she can't get rid of. No matter how much she tries.

What's their name. That's all she wants to know. So she should ask.

So she does.

Just before she goes to sleep, so she can't see the name appear, and so that she's not watching her arm the whole day, distracted as can be, as though her soulmate might be awake in the middle of the night.  
\---

In the morning, her eyes shoot open, Delphine scilences her dreadful alarm. Lays still for a while, knowing that she has to get up in a few seconds or she'll fall right back to sleep.

Then she remembers what she wrote on her arm.

Delphine whips her arm up to see what it says, and there in block letters, clear as day, she reads:

**Cosima.**

The name is unfamiliar, and yet somehow she knows it. Delphine knows what it holds, knows what it means to her, she just _knows._ It's an amazing and frightful feeling.

Then, pushing her covers down her body and swinging her legs onto the floor, she realises that Cosima is a female name. As in a name for a girl. As in, she's going to fall in love with a girl. As in, she's gay? Or, bisexual? Or another one.

It makes sense, after the intial sense of panic. Delphine's always been sligtly attracted to girls, in passing she'll see a girl who catches her eye. A girl who's hair she wants to run her fingers through. A girl she thinks is absolutly beautiful. But she thought that was everyone.

Maybe not.

Delphine's okay with this.

She get's up to shower, but before she can walk into her room, grabs a pen from her little desk and scrawls back:

_I'm Delphine._


	7. Conversations on her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please note: Cosima's writing is not me forgetting how to spell or forgetting punctuation.

_**Chapter 7** _

Cosima see's the name on her arm. The neat writing, so unlike her own, and thinks:

Home.

But that doesn't make any sense, because the room she's standing in now with the grey walls and the window and the posters, that's her home. She's in her home. Cosima doesn't even know what this Delphine looks like, how can she already have this feeling towards her.

Odd.

After this, she thinks 'she's a girl.'

And thank god, really.

She's never been attracted to men, she's never been into them in any sort of way. Now knowing that she can spend her life with a girl a lot of her fears have been lifted.

Then she thinks, This girl is _French!_  
\---

In return, Delphine gets a _You're French? Whats france like?_

**Yes. It's just like normal to me. But it is very historic, being in Lille. How about where you live? America, yes?**

_Yeah, thats right. Its pretty dull, my sisters and brother make it more interesting though_

**I'm sure it is not. You have sisters? How many?**

_Just two, we're triplets though. Separated at birth for a while, but we soon found each other. Thats a story for another time, though_

**Of course. Triplets? That's rare, no?**

_Rarer than twins, I think. Which is pretty cool. What about you, what's your family like?_

**It is just me. I am an only child, just me and my parents, who are back home.**

_Must be very quiet. Back home? Where are you right now?_

**Yes, it is, but occasionally I wish I did have a sibling or two to talk with. A boarding school, it has better teaching ways. __**

_Grass is always greener on the other side I s'ppose. Wow, that must be weird._

**I am sorry, what do you mean by that? It is a bit, strange without my parents.**

_Oh, right, I forget you don't speak English natively. Basically, everything seems better the other way. I would think so._

**I see, yes, I guess that is what it is like. So, what do you hope to be in the future? Something to do with science, perhaps?**

_Getting straight into the big questions, huh? Yeah, how'd you know? I don't know what right now but science, definetly. What about you?_

**You may or may not have written a lot of science on your hands in the past. That's actually how I got into science too.**

_Oh wow no way? I totally forgot about that, dude. Ha, you're welcome I guess._


	8. Letters in her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is no communication in this, but it's a chapter for other reasons

**_Chapter 8_ **

**_Time Jump._ **

After a long time of consideration, Delphine decides to go to school in America. It makes sense to her, her soulmate is there, and although she will be away from her friends and family, she will be getting a better education for science as well. It just seems like the right decision.

Her preferred school is one called Dyad, in California. She knows that Cosima lives in San Francisco, so they'd be pretty close together, which at this point is what she really wants. They're quite close now, they have each other's numbers, and they've skyped a few times, but the difference in time makes it a bit difficult to have a conversation where one of them isn't yawning the whole time.

Along with Dyad, is a few other ones, one's that don't have as good a science department, but make up for it in other things.

Delphine doesn't tell Cosima that she wants to go to Dyad, she wants to make sure she'll get in before she gets Cosima's hopes up. The last thing she wants to do is let the girl down.

She really wants to get in.

She really wants to get to see Cosima's face when she tells her that they're going to meet.  
\---

After a horrendous few months of waiting, and hating every minute of trying to avoid the college talk she gets a letter in through the mail.

The envelope says, 'The Dyad Institute of Higher Learning'

It makes Delphine's heart beat fast.

She can't find it in herself to open the letter. Instead, she walkings into the kitchen, where her mother is making the supper, and says, "This is it."

Her mother turns around with a knowing look on her face, "The Dyad letter?"

Delphine nods.

"Oh, honey, have you opened it?" She says, pulling out a chair and motioning for Delphine to sit as well.

Delphine shakes her head. It's a weird feeling, having so much of her future folded up in one piece of paper. Not even that, one sentence. One word. That's what she's counting on; the word 'congratulations' instead of 'sorry'.

"Do you want me to?"

Delphine nods. It's a weird feeling, that in this small kitchen, with the morning sun streaming through the old windows, and the old oak table still standing strong, that she's going to find out whether or not she's going to be moving to the states and meeting the love of her life, or if she's going to stay in the little country that she knows and loves.

Her mother reaches out and slides the letter out of Delphine's shaking hands. Her mother carefully opens the letter and pulls out its contents.

Her mother's eye's widen. Delphine's stay looked on her mother's green eyes.

"Oh, Delphine."

It's a weird feeling. Seeing the smile spread across her mother's mouth, but also seeing the tears prick her eyes. Delphine has many mixed feelings.

"You got in. You got into one of the most prestigious schools anywhere."

It's a weird feeling.


	9. Pictures in her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took forever

_**Chapter 9** _

Cosima's applications are difficult. Having to write about herself and tell them all the things they want to hear at the same time.

She applies to as many as she deems necessary, and as many as she thinks are worthy of her.

It's a lot to think about.

The one she really wants to get in is Dyad. Their science courses are by far the best, and their teachers are amazing and it just seems like the place to be for Cosima.

Everything in her body was simply drawing her there, it was like when she walked in she knew that there was something there that would make her life better.

She thought about going to France to go to College, or University as it would be there, to be close to Delphine, but she didn't think that any of them would give her the education she needed to get her qualifications.

And there was that Dyad feeling.  
\---

Delphine thought she would text Cosima straight away when she got in, but then she thought she would make it a surprise. Something about the look on Cosima's face that Delphine could make happen that was just too good to turn down.

Delphine could surprise Cosima in real life. And see her reaction in real life. And _she_ could do it.  
\---

When the time comes, and Delphine has everything with her that she needs, she gets ready to go.

The first picture that Cosima gets is an up close picture of a handle, and a small rectangle at the bottom, like some kind of package, but from this angle it's too difficult for Cosima to tell what it is.

The second one is a lot of blurred orange lights against an off black background. Cosima just gets more confused.

The third is a sort of white curve, and a light blue background, Cosima stares at this for a long time, trying to figure out what its meant to be. Before long, it's the only thing on her mind.

When that picture comes, all Cosima sends back to Delphine is a series of question marks, which Delphine replys to with a series of exclamation points.  
\---

Cosima's scrolling between the three of the pictures at the dinner table, with a sandwich in front of her as a lunch, which are now the most annoying thing in the world to Cosima.

Soon enough, Sarah flops down beside her, with Felix not too far behind. Sarah immediately says, "Whatcha got there, Cos?"

Cosima hands Sarah the phone, shrugs and says, "No clue."

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

"Delphine's been sending me all these pictures," Felix's face scrunches up, "Not like that, get you're head out of the gutter." Felix laughs, "Of things. I don't know what they are and I cannot work it out."

Felix takes a bite of her sandwich, which Cosima quickly snatches back, "Make your own, Fe." Felix frowns.

"Oh, I get it." Sarah says, and hands the phone to Felix.

"You do? Can you explain them to me?"

"Nah, I think you're meant to work them out yourself."

"Oh come on dude, don't be like that." Cosima pleads.

"Hey, you're the geekmonkey, you should've gotten it by now."

Sarah begins making her won sandwich, when Alison comes in and says, "What're we all doing?"

"Teasing Cos for being a dumbass." Felix says, handing the phone to Alison, "I got it." Felix says proudly.

Alison studies the photos for a while, then asks, "Who are these from?"

"Delphine." They say in unison.

"Oh. I got it."

Alison hands back the phone and Cosima sighs angrily.


	10. Packed bags in her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one didn't take as long I think. Maybe I'm wrong. At least you got it though.

_**Chapter 10** _

Delphine packs her bags, it's a painful process, knowing that she's going to have to pack everything she can for her coming days. It's painful because she has to take so many things, and she's just moving, completely, to another country. Where she won't have her parents or her home or the feeling of safety that comes with being somewhere familiar.

When Delphine knows everything is done, she sets them aside. In her bedroom that holds so many memories, where the walls are seemingly stripped bare, but all that's really different is the lack of one poster and a few things taken off of the shelf and things taken out of closed draws.

Her mother comes to stand next to her in the door way. Slides her arm around Delphine and says, "It seems so empty."

"Just what I was thinking," Delphine says, sadly.

"But, you are going to meet the love of your life, and you will meet her family, and see her in real life." Delphine's mother grabs her shoulders and turns Delphine to face her, "We will see each other whenever we want, and we can talk. Just because we won't be near to each other doesn't mean we won't be close with each other."

Delphine nods, "I will miss you, mother."

"I will miss you too, Delphine."  
\---

Before Delphine leaves, she takes a picture of her suitcase, from such an angle that makes it seem as though it is not one, and sends it to Cosima. She wants to wait for the reply, but she is soon whisked off by her mother and father, to the airport.  
\---

When Delphine gets to there, the goodbyes that she has to say to her parents are painful. There are many 'I love you's' and more 'I'll miss you's' and double the amount of tears.

When she's looking for her flight number, and where it is her plane is, she takes a picture of the light up lettering, so that she sees only a little bit of the letter and the grey background.

She sends that to Cosima too, ignoring the question marks sent to her in reply to her first picture.  
\---

The next picture she sends is of the curve of an engine on the wing and the light blue sky on the background, and a little bit of a cloud with that.

She sends the picture, and ignores the question marks again.

The plane ride is long, especially being on her own, she listens to a lot of music, and watches a lot of music, and see's a lot of clouds move by, does some research on some immunology, considers writing on her hand to Cosima, she doesn't though.

She does doodle a little bit.  
\---

After those three pictures, Cosima gets no more news. She gets some doodles, much more complex things than she's used to, Delphine must have a lot of time on her hands. 

She gets her letter of accommodation from Dyad, telling her where her room is and where to go when she get's there.  
\---

In the middle of the day, when she's on her way to Dyad with Alison, Sarah, Felix and Mrs. S, she gets a call, everyone hears the girls ringtone and get confused as to who it is that's calling her, everyone that would be talking to her is in this car and Delphine's asleep.

And yet, it's Delphine.

She answers the phone with a, "Hello?"

"Cosima. Have you got the messege in my pictures yet?"

"No, I haven't and I don't appreciate you not explaining," Cosima says, jokingly.

Delphine laughs at her, as do the rest of the people in the car, "Well I thought you were a smart girl. I suppose I was mistaken."

"Well that's just plain rude," Cosima tells her, then after a beat, "Wait, shouldn't you be asleep right now?"

"No, it's only noon. Though I am awfully tired."

Cosima frowns, "That doesn't make any sense, it's noon here. In France it must b-" Cosima sits, frowning again.

"Cosima?" Delphine says, a smile clear in her voice.

Cosima looks around to her siblings, and parent, who are all looking to her with an expression on her face that makes Cosima feel like an idiot.

"Holy watershed." Cosima throws her hand onto her forehead. "You're here?-"

"Oui."

"In America?"

"Oui."

"Right now?"

"Oui."

"Where?"

"At university, or, um, college."

"Which one?" Cosima asks, desperate for more information.

"Dyad."

"You're joking."

"Non."

"Oh my god."

"What?"

"I'm headed there right now, with Sarah, Felix, Alison, and S."

"All of them are coming with you?"

"Yeah, I mean, they're family and it's not far so we figured that they may as well help me move in, then we can say goodbye then."

"That is a nice thing for them to do with you." There's some noise on the other end of the line, someone introducing themselves and saying something to someone else, "Oh, Cosima, I must go. My roommate is here and I don't want to be rude."

"Of course. Good-bye." Cosima hesitates before saying, "I'll see you soon." With a smile drawn across her face.

"I'll see you soon." She hears back.

It's a weird feeling. Having the love of your life so close, only a half hour away, after being on opposite sides of the world, and knowing that soon they will meet and they will know each other, not just each other's brains and personalities, like they do already, but know her body, and her face, and her eyes, and her mannerisms, and Cosima can not wait. No longer.

She almost bounces in her seat the whole ride there.

Sometimes she actually does bounce.

A bit.

A lot.


	11. Soulmate's hands in her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost finished.

_**Chapter 11**_  
Soon enough, Delphine is well and truly moved in and somehow has already made some friends. It was her roommate, Delilah, who introduced her to some people from down the hall.

They're all sat in Delphine's room, lounging on various places in the room. Delphine's stood on her bed, putting a poster up on her wall, while listening into the conversation that the other 3 people are having.

Her phone goes off then, Delphine reaches down to grab her phone and see's the name on the screen, 'Cosima'.

She opens the message, it simply says:

**what room are you**

_1.08_

**ok**

Delphine expected something more than that conversation, but that seems it was all that Cosima found interesting enough to say.  
\---

Cosima's arms hurt. They burn and they ache. But damn it's worthwhile because carrying box upon box means that se can unpack as fast as she can and get to meet Delphine as fast as she can.

"Cos, can you slow down a bit?" Sarah's carrying in a small trinket, pretending that's work.

"Let the girl live, she's meeting her soulmate soon. Or y'know, she might put it off for a while if her brain thinks that's nessecary." Felix, unlike Sarah, isn't even pretending to work, he's just laid on Cosima's dorm bed.

"Yes, Cosima, we all know how your mind can work. Do not put off meeting this woman." Alison says, carrying one box, though cosima can see that it says 'blankets' on it.

"Hey, I am very offended that you guys think that I would do that."

"Cosima, as much as I love you dear, we all know that's bull." S says, with a actual box in her hands. At least one person really is helping.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll have you know I have already texted her to find out the room she's in and intend to go there when you guys clear out. Which, for the record, you really should do because this room was not meant for 5 people."

"Trying to get us to fuck off already?" Sarah says with a sarcastic lilt.

"Of course."  
\---

A half hour later, Cosima's moved in, met her roommate (it must've been a horrifying experience for her, met with 3 other people who argued that 'no _they_ , were Cosima.)

Now, she's saying tearful goodbye's to her wondrous family. None of them want to be the first to cry, but the all end up in tears, no matter how much Sarah will deny it in future.

When their backs turn to her, and when they leave she already can't wait to see them again. And she will soon, because they promised to Skype all the time.  
\---

Then, after checking herself in the mirror, she head off to 1.08.   
\---

It's almost like she doesn't need to look at the map. Cosima has one in her hands, telling her where's where and what's what. But she doesn't need it, because on the road to her soulmate, she knows exactly where she needs to go.

Cosima doesn't know how, but she does. She wanders around the corner, walks down the hallway a little bit and finds that she can hear some music on low, nothing special, just some kind of pop.

For some reason it makes her heart race.

Looking to the door she's at now, it says, 1.04, she goes past 1.05

1.06

1.07

and then

1.08.

She lifts her hand to knock.

As she does so, the door flings open.

There's a smile on a face she recognises when the door opens. The smile on tht face falls, then is replaced but sheer admiration, surprise, entrancement, and then, something Cosima believes to be love.

The same look is probably going on on her face.

Because she knows who that is.

That's her soulmate.

Before she knows what to do with herself, there is a hand on her cheek, her head is tilted upwards, and there's a pressure on her lips.

And she kisses back, because Delphine is here and she loves it and she can feel her hand on her cheek, burning a hole through her and her hands are on Delphine's hips, feeling like they might fall off just because this is too good to be true.

It's a weird feeling. Having these lips on her own and knowing they are the only one's that she wants to e there ever again.

Cosima can hear some voices, away from the bubble that Delphine and Cosima are unconsciously in. Cosima pulls away, to listen to these people talking behind them.

They're saying, "Um, Delphine, I don't think you're supposed to kiss people as a greeting. At least, not in America."

"Yeah, she could have herpes."

"Why didn't you greet me like that?"

Cosima lets out a boisterous laugh. Delphine rolls her eyes.

Delphine goes to pull away from the smaller girl, but before she has time to do so, Cosima says, "Hey, I'm Cosima."

"Enchantée." Delphine says, playing along.

Cosima echos, "Enchantée."

Instinctively, Cosima grabs Delphine's hand and introduces herself.

Delphine doesn't mind.


	12. Forgiveness in her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title doesn't make much sense but who cares. Have to stay true to form. Have fun reading!

_**Chapter 12** _

_**Two months later.** _

Cosima has a job at a little coffee shop off campus, she's been working there a while, having applied almost as soon as the school year started. There's a couple of people there who she knows from class and some more in some lessons.

Including Delphine, who she spends as much time as she can with. True to form, Cosima facetime and/or rings her family as much as she can.

The only problem with the new-found life Delphine and Cosima have is the horrendous lack of time that they have.

Having chose a science as a major means that a lot of their time is taken up by them studying, although they try their hardest to implement themselves into each others lives.

Sometimes, when Cosima's working in the coffee house, Delphine heads over there and sits as close to the counter as she can so as to watch her girlfriend work as she does too. When she does this she generally sits watching Cosima work, watching her usual ends up with her getting very little work done compared to when she would stay in her dormitory and work.

She can't find it in herself to care really. She always gets her work done and she always ends up with a high grade, so who's to care?  
\---

Further into the semester, Delphine and Cosima are so busy that they see hardly any of eachother.

Delphine hates it.

So does Cosima.

It's just so difficult to find time for each other when they both are partaking in such demanding majors. That on top of Cosima's job and lesson time makes it so difficult for them to see each other.

Although when they do they are generally completely wrapped up in each other.

Though this doesn't take away from the fact that when they don't see each other it is not ideal. At all.

Which is making Delphine feel like crap, sat on Cosima's little bed, staring at the propped up DVD case on the other side of the bed in vain because of the fact that Cosima isn't here. When Delphine hears the door handle turning the anger in her stomach flairs up and she shoots daggers at the girl coming into the room.

"Where have you been?" Delphine says, her accent thickening more with her anger.

"At work." Cosima says putting her coat on the rack, "I'm so sorry I'm late-"

"Yes. You are." Delphine cuts her off, "I hate it, Cosima. You missed half of our movie date."

At the sight of Delphine's angry face, Cosima's face drops, "I know but it wasn't all me. I had to stay back because some dumbass blew off his shift."

"That shouldn't mean you blow me off without even saying anything, just because of one person doesn't mean we should miss out on each other." Delphine gets up off the bed.

"Well," Cosima gets defensive, "it's not just one person is it? It's you as well, favouring your studying over me." Cosima raises her voice slightly.

"I only do that because I have to, Cosima."

"No you don't have to. You spend so much of your time in a book."

"Maybe I do but that is only because I know how lucky I am to be in this country, learning what I am."

"But you should be here for me too." Cosima almost mumbles, moving past Delphine and plopping down onto the bed.

"And I am!"

"Sure as fuck doesn't feel like it sometimes."

Delphine can only sigh, and moves out of the room.

"Merde." Delphine says to herself sadly.

And in the room she just walked out of, Cosima says, "Shit."  
\---

After talking to her sisters on skype for how ever many hours, she gets to the conclusion that they both were a bit wrong and Sarah and Alison tell her to woman up and talk to Delphine about it.

Sarah's exact words were 'Listen, Cos, the solution's obvious - just talk to her, cut the bull.'

Alison scalded her and said, 'I agree with what Sarah said, but in a less vulgar way.'

When she finally got off skype, she knew exactly what it was that she had to do for Delphine.

She just had to try harder.  
\---

Cosima goes to Delphine's dorm room as soon as she gets ready, the colds set in so she's clad in her red coat and scarf.

It's a weird feeling, walking to her soulmates dorm in the cold, knowing that she's meant to be with this girl but not knowing if she'll accept her apology for what she did.

She picks up her hand to knock on Delphines door, and it flies open almost as soon as she does so. The look on Delphine's roommates face tells Cosima that Delphine's not been in the best mood.

Her roommates mouth tells her, "You better damn well fix this."

Cosima nods.

The roommate walks off.

In the room, Delphine's got her knees up against her chest, back against the wall, headphones in and laptop on her knees.

Her eyes glimpse up at Cosima when she walks in, some kind of emotion goes through her eyes and she pulls out her earphones.

Cosima wrings her hands and Delphine says, "Sit down, if you like," gesturing to her bed.

"Thank you."

A beat of silence goes past and they both start talking at the same time:

"You aren't-"

"I don't-"

They both huff out a laugh, then Delphine gesture's for Cosima to start talking, which she does, "I don't favour my job over you, I just like to work so I can treat you, and so I can pay for everything I need to and that mean I have to work more than I would ever want to, and I hate that I can't spend so much time with you, because I so badly want to." She says all this while avoiding making eye contact with Delphine, who has now set down her laptop and is sat cross legged just to the side of Cosima.

"I don't favour my studies over you. I never would, you mean so much to me and I would never want to not see you, it's just that I have so much to do and I don't want to get behind because I know how fortunate I am to be here, in this university and with you. I don't want to be kick out for not doing my work, and if I finish everything before the deadline, I have all the time in the world to stay with you, and give you all my attention." Delphine reaches out to take Cosima's hand, which she allows.

Cosima finally looks up into Delphine's eyes and says, "It seems as though we both have to try a little harder to find time."

"It does." Delphine says softly, grabbing the sides of Cosima's face and pulling her into a soft kiss.


	13. Love in her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's nearly Christmas!!!!!!!!! P.S these chapter titles aren't so good

_**Chapter 13** _

They're waiting patiently.

Or, they _were_ waiting patiently. Now it's more like, their huddled together, sat down on the sidewalk, with scarfs bundles up at their necks and hands stuffed in their pockets to keep themselves from freezing.

The patience part went out the window when Sarah called Cosima 10 minutes ago to tell her she'd be 5 minutes late.

But Delphine has Cosima's head on her shoulders, which she can't help but think is a pretty good thing considering the fact that the sky is threatening snow and the air is making it feel as though it already is snowing.

As soon as a car pulls up just down from her and Cosima, and as the window rolls down, she hears an English voice.

"Oi, Cos! You wanna get up off the pavement and hop in the car?"

Cosima seems to wake up at the sound of her sister's voice, then grumbles something that Delphine can't understand while lifting her head off of her shoulders. Delphine stands up first and holds her hands out to help Cosima stand, which she gladly takes.

"Thanks." Cosima keeps Delphine's hand in her own.

Cosima and Delphine almost flop into the warm car, Cosima immediately says, "5 minutes late then?"

"You should just be glad I'm here, Geek Monkey." Sarah says to Cosima, then turns to Delphine and introduces herself, then the man sat next to her, Cal.

"It's nice to meet you, Cosima's told me all about you."

"Oh yeah?" Sarah laughs, "How bad?"

"Not that bad, could've been worse." Cosima butts in, "I know worse stories, but I didn't want Alison to think I've already tarnished the family names."

"Right, right."  
\---

The car ride over isn't too long but with Sarah, Sarah's soulmate Cal, and Cosima there's something about it that makes it a lot to deal with. Not in a bad way, of course, but in a way that makes it seem as though there is a lot of things to focus on.

The banter between Sarah and Cosima, the seemingly endless amounts of questions Cosima has for Cal, and the lovey dovey heart-eyes that are going on between Cal and Sarah, which Sarah denies that is happening. She then quickly turns the attention to Delphine and how she spends too much time staring at Cosima.

Delphine denies that too.

It's a weird feeling. Knowing that these people will be in her life for a long time. Weird and lovely.  
\---

"So, this is basically a pre-christmas dinner. We figured that because we all have our own family, that if we do a pre-christmas dinner now, then we can all have a christmas dinner and still spend christmas with your own family." Sarah explains when the conversation dies down about halfway through their ride home, after Delphine asked about it.

"In your case though, you can stay over for Christmas too, because you can't afford to got off to France. Which I'm really sorry about, by the way."

"I see now. I thought maybe it was a strange tradition to have multiple christmas dinners or something."

"No, we aren't _that_ American." Cosima says.

Cal replys with, " _You_ might not be, but I would do that all December if I could."

That makes everyone laugh.  
\---

It's Christmas Eve in the, um, triplets household and it's snowing outside and inside it toasty warm. Delphine still misses her family. It's easy for her to get settled in, S is nice to her, warm and sweet. Alison is offering her what is seemingly everything in the house. Felix is basically giving her stink eye for something that Delphine can't remember doing, if she did anything at all. And Sarah, well Sarah hasn't said anything to her until now.

And now she's saying, "So, Delphine, what're your intentions with my sister?" Delphine's confused for a few seconds, until she realises that this is the 'sister talk'. This is when Felix also comes over, and doesn't stop giving her the stink eye. Delphine figures they were planning this all night long.

"My intentions with your sister are to make her happy," Delphine stops for a while, and feels although she has to say more, but really, there isn't anything else to say. She wants to say some all ending speech, but she doesn't think there really is anything to say.

"That it?"

"Sarah, this is not what you should be spending Christmas Eve doing." Alison sighs at her antics.

"Yeah. It is." Sarah says, as if it's the easiest thing ever.

"Guys, c'mon, stop this, Delphine is my soulmate, her _'intentions'_ with me don't matter." Cosima says, mildly pissed of at Sarah.  
\---

Cosima loved the meal that Mrs. S and Alison whipped up for them, it was really good. She thinks.

She does quite remember because all she was really doing was staring at Delphine. She isn't entirely sure why, but she does know that because Delphine was there, she had no idea what was really going on. Delphine is just too pretty.

And, to be honest, having Delphine there emits a bit of a weird feeling. There was her soulmate, sat next to her, with her family surrounding them both and she couldn't be happier.

But at the same time there was something else, something lingering. Nothing bad, don't get her wrong, it was a good feeling, a good sense to something different, something there that just told her everything would be amazing.

Sarah makes fun of her for staring at Delphine.

Delphine blushes.

Cosima just sticks her tongue out at her sister.

Alison chides them both.

Felix can't stop laughing.

Cal just looks confused.

S doesn't bother.


	14. Presents in her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this includes some French, and I don't know French so I just google translated it and if its wrong then blame google. Also, this French isn't translated into English because it's from Cosima's perspective, that's explained though. Sort of.  
> This is a bit longer than the other chapters, so get settled in.

_**Chapter 14** _

A few months later, in the middle of spring, it's Delphine's birthday. She really can't wait to go home, to see her mother, for the first time in months.

But she desperately doesn't want to leave Cosima.

So one late night, when Cosima is wrapped around her, she can only think of one solution.

She can just invite Cosima to come to France with her, it would be costly yes but at what cost is spending her birthday with her family? Her _full_ family.

Delphine thinks that she could afford it, she got a job at a local bookstore that all the students go to recently, and it pays surprisingly well. She never goes anywhere really, all her time is spend with Cosima or her family, or a night out once a month, so really she's accumulated quite a large amount of money in the past few months.

She could afford it.

So, with all logic thrown out the window, Delphine looks down to Cosima, and lightly starts to shake the girl's shoulders.

When Cosima finally wakes up (it takes a while, the girl sleeps too deeply), it's with a groan and a, "What the heck do you want from me?"

"Come to France with me?" Delphine whispers to the girl who is already falling back to sleep.

"Fine." Cosima mumbles, "But you have to tell me if your relatives start talking shit about me in French." It's hard to take her seriously when Cosima's words are morphing into one, and she's using Delphine's boob as a pillow.

Delphine giggles, and tells her, "Of course, my love."

"Thanks."

Cosima tumbles back into sleep.  
\---

"Alright, say 'France is _amazing_ '" Cosima exclaims, with her arm outstretched and a phone in hand.

"Cosima, people are giving us weird looks."

"That's not what I said to say." Cosima says, taking the picture anyway. It wasn't the best picture, Delphine was looking off screen, presumably at someone looking at them, and Cosima's face was almost completely blurry, with her mouth, still moving at the words coming out of her mouth and her eyes shut.

"Wow, that's one hell of a picture. I love it." Cosima makes it her phone background.

"Cosima, please explain to me why you wanted to take a selfie with me outside of an airport." Delphine inquires, grabbing Cosima's hand.

"Because we're in France. It's cool in France."

"Right. You know there are cooler places than airports in France, correct?"

Cosima scoffs, "Sure there are." She drawls sarcastically.

"Just get in the Taxi."

Cosima giggles.  
\---

Delphine knocks softly on the heavy wooden door and waits for the face behind it to greet her. When this happens, she doesn't expect to burst into tears. Seeing her mother after a few months - nearly a year, actually - is more of a relief to her than she had thought it would be.

And it's really nice to be in her mother's warm embrace, she let go of Cosima's hand and encompassed her mother's small form in her arms.

"I missed you, Delphine. So much." Her mother whispers softly in her ear.

"I missed you too, Mama."

"Come in now, let me meet this girl." Delphine's mother says, withdrawing from the tight hug.

Delphine goes to grab Cosima's hand again, and can't help but laugh at the girl's puzzled expression, having realised that they were just now speaking in french, she tells Cosima, "She said that she wants to meet you."

Cosima nods, then says, "I got half of that."

Delphine leads her inside by the hand.  
\---

In the Cormier's house it's homey. Like any home is. but this home is something different. It's got little windows everywhere, and it's all open plan, with a no doors dividing the kitchen, entry way and living room.

It's all deep brown, and golden hues. Or it seems like that, Cosima thinks that maybe it's just the feeling it gives off. In reality, it's got light blue walls, and dark oak floor boards, the kind that shout home to Cosima. For no real reason.

"Mother, this is Cosima." She hears Delphine say, outside of her own head.

Cosima looks back to the two women and sticks out her hand for the small woman to shake. Delphine's mom all but bats Cosima's hand out of the way and pulls her in for a hug, which Cosima enjoys. She gives the same hugs as Delphine does.

"I'm Genevieve." She is told when she pulls out of the hug, "It's so nice to meet you, dear."

"It's nice to meet you too." Cosima says genuinely, "You have a really nice house."

The two French girls laugh, then Genevieve turns to Delphine and says, "Your father will be home at about 4. He can't stop talking about how he can't wait to meet you and Cosima. And give a 'stern talking to' to Cosima. His words, not mine."

Delphine laughs, "He would want to do that."

"So, you two can leave your things there, now come into the kitchen and we can get to know each other."

As they're walking into the kitchen, Genevieve turns to Delphine and says, "Elle est très belle."

"Oui, elle est."

Cosima may not know too much French, but she sure as hell knows that the word beautiful was thrown about just then.  
\---

After few hours of talking about everything with Delphine and her mother, the front door makes a noise, and Delphine and Genevieve stop talking about how many people are in America, and wait to hear some noise. She was about to ask what was going on when she heard, "Je suis revenu!" From someone with a deep voice.

"In English please, father, we have company."

"L'âme soeur est-elle ici?" She hear once more from behind a wall.

 _something about something being here?_ Cosima thinks, trying to analyse the quickly spoken French. You see, she can speak French after finding out the nationality of her soulmate she made a thing of it. But she's never really been around so many native French people speaking it so fast.

"Oui, and she would not appreciate being talked about behind her back, I don't suppose." Genevieve calls back.

"Mais comment puis-je être en mesure de gâcher avec la fille?" Is the answer that comes back. Cosima knows she has no hope of translating that sentence.

"You are confusing her, darling. Just be nice!"

Footsteps are heard leading to the kitchen and Cosima turns in her seat in order to get a better look at the man as he comes in, then decides that maybe getting up would make a better impression.

When he enters, Cosima is struck by how much like Delphine he looks. They hold the same rounded brown eyes, but the blond hair she must get from her mother, as this man's is a deep brown. The smile that occupy's his face is one that matches Delphine's and it strikes her just as hard.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Cosima." She says, her hand outstretched.

"Yes, I imagine it is." The man says, with a cheeky look in his eye, shaking Cosima's hand. "I'm just joking, it's nice to meet you as well, I'm Richard. Now sit back down, I'll join you soon. I'll take up your suitcases."

Cosima jumps to the occasion to help him, (Alison may or may not have given her some tips to make a good impression), "I'll help you."

"Why, thank you."

She grabs her suitcase and carry on, and then looks to Delphine's father to see where she is supposed to go.

Richard says, "Upstairs, first door on the left."

Cosima nods, and lugs the suitcase and back up the stairs.

"So, Cosima, where in America are you from?" Richard asks, trying to make conversation.

"San Francisco, in California."

"Ah, I see. I know absolutely nothing about that. But how grand. Have you got much family?"

Cosima loves and hates this question- "I've got a brother and 2 sisters, we're triplets."- she always gets the same answer, 'Oh wow, you must've been a handful when you were kids'.

"Oh wow, I bet your brother feels left out a lot."

That's usually not the answer.

"Well, he grew up with my sister mostly, so they have a pretty strong bond." Cosima pushes through the door, which for the record, says 'Delphine's room' on it, in some stickers that look at least 10 years old.

"You didn't all grow up together?" Richard says, clearly interested.

"No, but that's a complicated story." Cosima sets down the case with a huff. "So this is Delphine's room."

The room was quite something, a big window adjacent to the door, and a white desk underneath it. The bed was on the left, along with a wardrobe. It was very clean, and neat. And very Delphine.

"It's cute."

"Yes. Now Cosima. I must talk to you." Richard says to Cosima, standing next to the girl, and looking at the room Delphine grew up in, "Delphine is my only daughter and I love her dearly. And as fate would have it you were chosen to be her soulmate, and I'm undeniably sure that you are very kind. I mean, you stood for me when I entered a kitchen." Cosima looks to her feet, "But I swear to all the gods, you would regret it if ever you hurt my girl."

"I do not intend to hurt Delphine, and if I do I'm sure I would deserve whatever you have in store for me."

Richard seems please with that.  
\---

The morning of Delphine's birthday is a calm one, it's an overcast day outside, rain threatening to fall, but being curled up against Delphine isn't something that can be spoiled by weather.

"Good morning, my love."

Cosima breathes a deep breath, "Good morning, birthday girl."

Delphine breathes out a laugh, "Thank you."

Cosima turns in the bed, to that she can see Delphine, "You're welcome." she says softly as she leans in for a kiss.

And of course, that's when Delphine's dad decides to barge into the room, saying something in French.

Delphine replies with, "J'ai pensé que je t'avais dit de frapper? Nous aurions pu être-"

"Je ne veux pas entendre ça." He says, putting his hands to his ears, Delphine laughs.

"Something about listening?" Cosima says, so only Delphine can hear.

"Not quite."

Richard clears his throat, "When shall you be down? We want you to open your gifts."

"We will be down soon."  
\---

After opening her parents gifts, Delphine takes the one that Cosima set down for her just before the present opening. It's a small box, presumably jewelry, wrapped not very well, in some gold wrapping paper.

Delphine shoots a look at Cosima, and she says, "Hey I may not be any good at wrapping presents but it's the thought that counts."

"I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking it."

Delphine just shakes her head and begins to tear open the wrapping paper, when she gets to the actual presents, she sees that she was right in thinking that it was a peice of jewlery but when she opens it she doesn't think that what would be inside would be so beautiful.

What was inside was the molecular of serotonin, the chemical that your brain secretes to make you happy. It's not too big, about as big as her thumb, but it wasn't lacking in detail. It was quite heavy and had golden.

Delphine loved it.

"Pourquoi n'avons-nous pas pensé à cela?" Delphine hears from her father, and laughs at the disdain in his voice.

She turns to Cosima and says, "Thank you, I love it."

She knew she would.  
\---

After they had lunch, which consisted mostly of chocolate (it's a birthday afterall), Cosima and Delphine head out into town for Delphine to show Cosima around.

And because Delphine was pretty sure that if she and Cosima stayed home, her soulmate would get bored watching French TV.

They walk into town, it's not too far, and it being such a nice day, it seemed as though it would be a missed opportunity to not. As they walk down the road, it's a bit of a idyllic day. The sun is shining and Cosima's hand in hand with her soulmate, going to walk around a place she doesn't know, where her beautiful soulmate will tell her everything she can about the place she grew up.

It's great.

They stop off at a cutesy little coffee shop first, and as soon as the girl behind the counter sees Delphine, she exclaims - presumably in delight - Delphine smiles at her, then greets her.

There aren't too many people in here, only a few old couples, and a few older people with babies. A girl at the counter, who is now writing something on her skin, and then walks over to Delphine while taking off her dark green apron, which matches the walls, and gives her a big hug, without even saying any words, though when she pulls back, she says, "Delphine! Je ne vous ai pas vu depuis si longtemps, comment avez-vous été?"

"J'ai été bonne Jen, c'est Cosima, elle parle seulement un peu de français, alors prends-la lentement." Delphine replies.

Cosima heard, 'how have you been' and 'good' and 'speak' and 'french' and 'slow'. She's assuming that that's about her and having to speak slow because she doesn't speak too much French.

"It's nice to meet you, Cosima, I've heard a lot. I'm Jennifer, Delphine's friend from school."

"Hey, it's nice to finally meet someone who knew Delphine when she was younger." Cosima says, genuinely, "How many embarrassing pictures do you have of herr and can I see all of them?" She stage whispers to Jennifer.

"Merde, you two cannot get along." Delphine groans, with a smile on her face. "Now make us some coffee, We have a long day ahead of us."

Jennifer heads back to the counter, and turns on the coffee machine, "The usual?"

"Of course."

When Jennifer turns, Cosima asks Jennifer, "Hey, why does Jennifer speak English?"

"Her family goes on holiday a lot."

Cosima nods.

Just in that moment, a man comes out from behind some of the silver machines, presumably in some kind of office, "Delphine! Il est bon de vous voir, mon vieil ami!" The stubbled man practically yells, they do that a lot here, Cosima thinks.

There's a scribble of writing on his arm, the same place Jennifer wrote on her arm, Cosima figures that they're soulmates, or it's a weird coincidence.

"Hé, Al. Sa fait du bien. Et ici? Tout va bien dans la boutique?" Delphine asks back.

Cosima is pretty sure she just asked about their shop, which she assumes they own.

"Très bien, comme toujours, les touristes l'adorent."

The shop is doing well, is what Cosima gets from that.

After catching up with Jennifer and the man she now knows as Albert, they give her their Christmas wishes and then they're off with their (incredibly good) coffee's.

"So, where we off to next?"

"Well, we have a nice little park that's nice to enjoy on days like this, and it's a weekday so it'll probably be empty. We can just wander around."

"I think the park sounds nice, I'd like to see the place where you ran around as a chubby li'l baby." Cosima says, with a mischievous look in her eyes.

"You are a cheeky girl, Cosima Niehaus. I shouldn't tolerate you." Delphine tells her, with too much love in her voice to be serious.

Cosima pulls them to a stop, and leans into Delphine, "I think you definitely should." She mumbled, just loud enough for Delphine to hear, and then leans into Delphine for a kiss.

Which she receives gladly.  
\---

When they reach the park, it's almost completely empty, there are a few dogs running about, playing with their owners and there's a few pairs of people pushing their children on swings, which is where Cosima immediately pulls Delphine by the hand. 

Cosima quickly takes a seat on the swing and puts her half empty coffee down next to her, and Delphine does the same.

They just sit there for a while, with the sun shining behind them and the sounds of the birds in the trees.

After a while of sitting in comfortable silence, Cosima says, "Do you think that your parents like me?"

Delphine looks over to her, and replies, "Definatly. My father told me that he likes that you aren't dumb and my mother told me she liked your hair. After that I had to convince her that she shouldn't get her hair like yours."

Cosima laughs, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. It didn't take much but I think she considered it for a while."

"I'm going to tell her that she'd look good in them."

"Cheeky." Is all Delphine says before letting go of Cosima's hand at throwing her legs out to begin swinging, as soon as she does so, Cosima joins in and tells her, "I bet you I can swing higher than you."

Delphine scoffs, "You don't know what you just got yourself into."

"Oh don't I?" Cosima taunts her, while swinging her legs back and forth.

Delphine does the same.  
\---

The flight back from France is sad, Delphine is visibly upset by having to leave her parents again. Cosima takes her hand on the flight and doesn't let go, so Delphine always knows that Cosima's here.

Always.


	15. Forever in her hands.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Done. Hope you liked it. Toodles.

_**Chapter 15** _

_**6 Years Later.** _

It's Christmas in the Cormier-Niehaus household. Their little girl, Genevieve - named after Delphine's mother - is running around wild because-

"It's Christmas!" Gen yells, for the millionth time that day.

And it's only noon.

"Yeah, little bean, it is." Cosima says, as she swoops down to the girl to grab her.

When they were opening their gifts to each other it was even worse, every time one of them would unwrap one of their presents she would gleefully ask what it was, even if she could tell already. Although Cosima isn't so sure that's a bad thing, her child being that excited was incredibly funny and she got a lot of pictures and video's for when her little girl is older.

"Where's my aunties? And Uncle's?" Genevieve softly speaks, as though she wasn't just yelling as loud as a 5 year old could.

"They should be here at 12:30. And it's 12:20 now, so Alison will be here in 5 minutes, and Sarah will be here in a half hour."

"But that's ages." Gen drags out all of the words she says in that sentence.

Delphine butts in to their conversation, walking down from the bathroom hall of their house and into the kitchen, "If you want to make the time go quicker, then you can always help me in the kitchen."

Cosima and Gen both share a look that Delphine doesn't see, and shake their heads.

Until Delphine calls out, "You can do dessert!"

They share a look again, and Cosima can see the renewed excited glint in Gen's eyes, so she puts the girl down, and lets her run into the kitchen, and jump up onto one of the kitchen chairs.

Cosima follows her in, and gives a kiss to Delphine, who is currently cutting up some carrots, "What do we have to do?"

"Grab some berries from the fridge and put them in that big bowl on the counter," Delphine gestures behind her to a bowl on the cream coloured counter in their little kitchen.

As soon as Cosima gets the berries out of the fridge, the doorbell goes off. Genevieve gets up promptly and says, "Mama! Répondre à la porte! It might be Ali."

"It could be, come with me," Delphine says, and takes the small girls and and gets pulled over to the door.

From Cosima's spot in the kitchen, she can only hear small mumbles of the grown ups talking to each other, and excited conversations between Gen, Oscar and Gemma, who are presumably talking to each other about their presents.

Cosima smiles, and watches her girl, who has Cosima's green eyes and Delphine's blonde locks, run past the door, promptly followed by Oscar and Gemma, Alison and Donnie's children.

Soon enough, Donnie and Alison wander into the kitchen behind Alison.

"Hey Alison, Donnie." Cosima says, tipping the berries into the bowl, "Do you happen to know when Sarah will be here?"

Donnie shakes his head, "Not a clue."

Alison then asks Delphine, "Do you need any help with the dinner?" trying to act nonchalant, even though it's fairly obvious she wants to take the reigns.

"Yes, please," As Delphine begins to tell Alison what she can do for her, Sarah walks in the door immediately yelling through the whole house.

"Hey sestras! I'm here! So is Kira and Cal and Fe!"

"We're in the kitchen!" Cosima yells back, hands still covered in berries.

"Can we all please stop yelling." Alison says quietly, with Delphine sniggering beside her.

Kira runs through the house, and clearly finds the rest of the kids in the living room, if the loud speaking is anything to go by.  
\---

Soon, the cooking is all done, and everyone's sat around the table that she. The children are down at one end and the grown ups at the other, shortly after everyone sat down crackers were cracked, and food was dished up.

Like in the past, Cosima, Alison and Sarah bounced off each other, making fun conversation with each other, and making everyone laugh through each other.

Delphine watches the girl she loves stuff her face with christmas food, and make her daughter giggle, and make this Christmas the best one yet. Although that's what she thinks every single year.

Throughout dinner, Cosima glimpses every now and again at the French girl, and everytime she does so she can't really believe that she's married to such a woman. She's had a child with the woman of her dreams and would never hope for anything more. Except perhaps more babies.

It's a weird feeling.

But Cosima found out a while ago that feeling was home. And love. And the feeling of everything you'd ever want rolled up into one feeling.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think?


End file.
